Super Sunday encourages young black students to attend college

SAN BERNARDINO - Cal State San Bernardino President Al Karnig spoke Sunday at Ecclesia Christian Fellowship's first worship service in an effort to encourage black students to pursue higher education.

"I'm here to tell you despite whatever budgetary circumstances there are, CSU's commitment to the African-American community is greater, stronger than it's ever been," Karnig said.

Karnig was among numerous officials from the CSU system that spoke in more than 100 predominantly black churches this month in order to get the word out about the need for a college degree.

The event is known as Super Sunday and is held in conjunction with Black History Month.

Super Sunday is an outreach of the CSU African-American Initiative, a partnership between CSU campuses and African-American religious leaders.

There were 18,428 African-American undergraduate students enrolled in the CSU system in fall 2004.

The number climbed to 22,167 in fall 2008.

But in the last two years, African-American enrollment has declined to 18,205, or 5.2 percent of the undergraduates.

Karnig added some sobering projections to those numbers.

He said if trends continue, the college graduation rate of young blacks will stand between 9 and 10 percent.

"There are real challenges, but those challenges are opportunities and we need to take advantage of the opportunities that exist," Karnig said.

He stressed not only the need for a college degree so that young people can compete in an increasingly global marketplace, but also the accessibility of higher education for young blacks.

Karnig noted that because of various grants and scholarships, 56 percent of Cal State San Bernardino students don't pay any fees.

He also touted the school's ability to attract African-American students.

"We have the second highest African-American percentage of any California university, then we have the very highest retention rate for first and second year of any of the 23 (CSU campuses)," Karnig said.

At the same time, Karnig said that among black graduates throughout the country, only about one-third are men.

Several of those in attendance raised their hands when asked if they graduated from Cal State San Bernardino or had sons and daughters enrolled there.

Rev. Joshua Beckley mentioned that his wife, daughter and son-in-law are products of the school.

The church regularly encourages its younger members to attend college. Beckley said the church researches scholarships available to students and makes college presentations during services for young people.

He also praised Cal State.

"We believe that God has given us an excellent institution right in our own back yard," Beckley said. "We ain't got to travel all the way across the country to get an education, amen?"